The draft plan, released yesterday, outlines key actions to meet climate and biodiversity challenges.
Tourism Minister Peeni Henare said tourism had an essential role to play in reversing the decline of New Zealand’s unique biodiversity and protecting the environment.
"A draft tourism environment action plan sets out actions to further shift the tourism industry to a regenerative model that gives back more than it takes," Mr Henare said.
"The draft action plan is bold and ambitious — and it needs to be.
"We have a critical window of opportunity to create and courageously unite behind a new vision for tourism in Aotearoa. If we are to reverse the decline of our unique biodiversity and contribute to global efforts to create a balanced and sustainable climate, we must act now."
The draft action plan was the second phase of the tourism industry transformation plan and was developed by the tourism industry, unions, Māori and government.
Destination Queenstown chief executive Mat Woods said the resort was leading the charge to meet decarbonisation goals.
The destination management plan for the resort had been developed in 2020 by Lake Wanaka Tourism, Destination Queenstown and the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
The plan was to have a zero carbon position in the Queenstown area by 2030 — 20 years earlier than the country’s goal.
He said the groups had received incredibly strong feedback that if it wanted to regenerate the tourism economy it had to address carbonisation first.
"And that is what we are going to do," he said.
Already some exciting projects had started with Queenstown tourist businesses, Mr Woods said.
He said many businesses were replacing equipment that was getting old with new sustainable equipment reducing their carbon footprint.
The Climate Change Commission will next year recommend whether emissions from international shipping and aviation should be included in New Zealand’s 2050 zero carbon target, which would have a big impact on Queenstown’s emissions.
But there were promising signs in aviation, Mr Woods said. Air NZ was looking to test flight an electrical plane in 2026. It also wanted to electrify its Bombardier Q300 fleet from 2030 onwards.
Mr Woods said Queenstown was an area exposed to climate change so it made sense to set ambitious sustainability goals.
